Macroeconomics, Inequality & Study Abroad

How do these come together? I’ve been thinking about this due to the surprising popularity of a new book by Thomas Pinketty called “Capital in the Twenty-first Century.” While I have not read it, I’ve heard him speak about it and read reviews —bottom line, we are a nation of growing economic inequality and it’s not going away. It’s a structural problem. We also know about the increasing concern about massive student debt – upwards of 1 trillion dollars; and the struggles of institutions to stem the upward turn of tuition (you gotta pay for fancy dorms and new eating spaces somehow…).

What’s this got to do with study abroad and the cyclical effort to increase numbers of students (e.g.: the new IIE Generation Abroad initiative). I fear that the economic realities we face will exacerbate the “employability gap” between those who go to college and have the opportunity to participate in an international experience (which as I’ve written, provides a strategic advantage to students who know how to optimize its value in their job searches), and students who are neither in college nor able to benefit from any form of international educational experience. It’s already a huge gap when you consider that only 300,000 students, of an annual population of over 20 million undergrads, study abroad (the numbers do go up if you do count international work/service-learning and internships).

So we have growing economic inequality — a widening gap in educational opportunity — an increasing gap in access to international educational experiences — an inevitable gap in skills and competencies between those with and without international experience –and finally, the resulting inequality in employability for students who do not have the benefits of either a college education or international educational experience.

I must agree that we are a nation of growing economic inequality, it is here to stay, and is not going away. Employability gaps are addressed to those students who are capable of holding a job and available for hire after graduation. I believe if students have more knowledge as it relates to international educational experiences that will not be huge employability gaps. Making students aware of international work, service learning, and internships earlier will help decrease employability gaps.
Lorothy Wilson

I’ll be addressing this theme at the upcoming NAFSA international conference in Boston with Dr. Fanta Aw of American University and Dr. Richard Murnane of Harvard. The sesson is on “Economic Inequality and the Growing Gap in Access to International Education. If any followers are at the conference next week, it’s at 9:30am on Friday, May 29.